Chris Greager, national director : operations, ECA(SA) issued a statement regarding the statement from the Electrical Contractor's Board that as from 1 October the ECB will use the services of all Voltex Electrical Wholesalers outlets throughout South Africa to carry out the registrations of electrical contractors on its behalf, and to sell its CoC/Test Reports.  "We have reason to believe that this arrangement may not be in the best interests of the industry and may have serious unintended consequences," says Greager.

This section covers new products and industry news including the Bosch Media Day held at the Cheetah Centre, a warning from CBI-electric : low voltage about counterfeit CBI products, Barlec-Zenith SABS accredited panels and an industrial multimeter from Major Tech. Project news includes heat pumps installed at the Champagne Sports resort by Magnet and the incorporation of the latest WEG technology for medium voltage drives at Great Basin's Burnstone Gold Mine.

This interesting feature looks at Comtests hand-held unit for on-line testing to evaluate the electrical and mechanical health of an ac or dc motor and its driven load, low and medium voltage motor protection relays from NewElec. There is also news about Schneider Electric's compact soft starter with integrated bypass, Megger's high voltage dc dielectric test sets and CMG's premium efficiency class ‘H' totally enclosed fan cooled PPA electric motors.

The Buyer's Guide lists manufacturers and distributors of products and services for security - including keypads and access control, standby and backup, emergency lighting, alarms and sirens and security lighting.

This regular feature covers Legrand's range of Zuchini busbars, Denver Technical Products' ceramic non-inductive resistors and Advanced Product Technology's new halogen-free cables.

This feature is packed with interesting articles on lighting, lighting trends and news from the lighting industry. Articles include news about BEKA's contribution to the Cape Town Stadium, a powerful working lamp from Bartec, Tridonic's solutions for the world's tallest building, Major Tech's LED security lights and OSRAM's energy saving LEDs saving a great deal of power at Munich's annual Oktoberfest.

IAN Downard, sales director at Three-D Agencies, is a self-confessed gadget-aholic and he has every techno ‘toy' known to man. A skilled multi-tasker, he simultaneously operates his Apple Mac, ipad, three ipods and a cellular phone while having an intelligent conversation - all without missing a beat. His lively conversations are spiced with a hefty dose of good humour but this does not belie the fact that he is a compassionate man who is completely honest and believes in ‘telling it like it is'.

In Terry Mackenzie Hoy's column, ‘Working Knowledge' he answers some of the questions that have been posed to him in the last few months.

Columnist, Hannes Baard, is going to examine ‘the green book’ and help readers demystify SANS 10142. In this month’s column, he again discusses the importance of understanding the definitions in Clause 3 SANS 10142-1.

In this month’s column, Nick du Plessis discusses what makes a good electrician.